The management of agricultural fields has been an ongoing concern of farmers. Many factors complicate the process of field management, such as environmental considerations, crop type and rotation, soil type variability, depth of topsoil, field topography, etc. In response to the challenges presented in field management, farmers continue to improve their field management techniques and tools.
One known field management technique is the use of selective field tillage. More specifically, to conserve soil and energy many farmers no longer completely plow or till fields on a yearly basis and/or till only selected areas of the field. Thus, a farmer may rotate the areas of a field which are tilled in a given year and may avoid tilling problem areas in a field. For example, portions of fields which are near a stream and inclined toward the stream may be infrequently tilled to avoid runoff into the stream.
Tools currently available that are used to facilitate field management techniques in the form of tillage control are planters which permit planting in field areas which are not tilled. One example is the Case 5400 No-Till Grain Drill planter. This seed drill permits the farmer to plant seeds in untilled or mulch-tilled fields. Other examples are the Case Early Riser.RTM. brand planters, which also permit seeds to be planted in, untilled, mulch-tilled and tilled fields. Some tools are available to aid in tillage control but are directed to the problems of planting in untilled or mulch-tilled fields. It would also be desirable to improve the tools available for use in the process of tilling.
To improve the tools available for tillage control, it would be desirable to provide plows, drags and other soil disturbing tools which are adjustable and controllable. These features would permit the farmer to modify the type and degree of tillage while moving through the field, and would give the farmer more variability in the degree of tillage to more closely match the amount of tillage required. Furthermore, it would also be desirable to provide more adjustable and controllable planters. To further improve control of the tools available for tilling and planting fields, it would be desirable to control the tools based upon the horizontal and vertical position of the particular tool within the field using a positioning system such as that provided by satellite based global positioning systems (GPS).